SILICON-NITRIDE AND OXYNITRIDE FILMS

The physics and chemistry of amorphous silicon oxynitride films are re viewed. Since the main applications of these materials are in the manu facture of Si-based integrated circuits (ICs), phenomena such as diffu sion mechanisms, oxidation kinetics, defects and charge trapping are g iven special attention. Mature thin-film technologies to form oxynitri de layers are the various types of chemical vapour deposition and ther mal processing in NH3 and N2O. Determined by their growth process, oxy nitrides contain a certain amount of hydrogen which is shown to play a key role in the reactivity of these materials. Once this is understoo d, it is possible to relate the properties of a wide range of oxynitri des to their composition and the micro-chemistry involved.